Climate Change: Pay now, or Pay Later

April 27, 2011

A common line of thought among deniers is that the costs of mitigating climate change are so steep as to preclude even thinking about the problem.

What’s missing from this logic is, we will be spending trillions of dollars on new infrastructure throughout the world in coming decades – the question to ask is whether that spending locks us into current patterns of fossil fuel dependance, inevitable shortages, pollution, war and climate catastrophe.

Former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (R-NJ), a former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under George W. Bush, who serves on the Board of Directors at the American Security Project (ASP), said: “Too often the debate about climate breaks down over cost, with many Americans rightfully concerned about what limiting pollution would do to our economy. But what this series of reports shows is that there is a cost on the other side of the ledger, too. There will be costs to our economic security from climate change—and significant ones at that—if we do nothing but continue business as usual.”